Menomonee Falls/Hamilton swimmers earn 11th at state

Lucas and Siehs both claim medals

The large senior class of the Menomonee Falls/Hamilton girls swim team had a proper send-off as both Haley Lucas in the 100 butterfly and Amanda Siehs in the 100 freestyle both earned top six medals in the WIAA State D1 meet in the Natatorium in Madison last Saturday.

"Yes, I thought it went pretty well," said Indian coach Jim Weitzer. "…a lot of the kids moved up and Haley and Amanda wound up where they needed to be."

Behind those efforts, Falls/Hamilton took 11th in the D1 field with 77 points as defending champ Waukesha South/Mukwonago made it two in a row by edging Arrowhead, 279-273.

Lucas had the best effort of the day for the Indians with a fifth in the 100 butterfly in a season best time of 57.26 seconds. It had been a state goal of hers to get into the top six. She had narrowly missed it last season with a seventh.

Pulaski's Corrin VanLanen won the fly in 55.6.

Siehs got her day rolling with an eighth in the 50 free in a season-best 24.17. Weitzer said it wasn't as quite as good an effort as Siehs would have liked, but did note the field in that race was very deep as six athletes went under 24 seconds including new record-holder Beata Nelson of Verona with a shockingly fast 22.97 effort.

Siehs then made it back-to-back years with medals in the 100 free as she took close to .75 of a second off her sectional time with a sixth-place 52.57 effort. South/Mukwonago's Abby Jagdfeld won the event in 50.54.

"Amanda didn't quite have that snap in the 50 that she wanted, but came back with a good 100 and two good relays," said Weitzer. "That's how you swim like a champion." Siehs was fourth in the 50 free last season and sixth in the 100 free.

Both the 200 free really team of of Siehs, Emmorie Jossie, Lucas and Grace Devine took more than a second off its sectional time with a 10th-place effort of 1:39.43 effort while the 400 crew of Devine, Sommer Semanek, Lucas and Siehs, was clocked in 3:36.1, good for ninth. Lucas had a 53.33 split and Siehs a 52.37 clocking on their 400 free legs.

Sophomore Cassidy Pilo had gotten the meet off to a good start for the Indians, taking 12th in diving with a 358.15 point effort. Junior teammate Kate Haznaw made the first cut in diving but not the second, earning 20th (232.65).

Devine also scored points, earning a 15th in the 200 free with a season best of 1:56.44 before moving up two seed spots in taking 20th in the 100 free (54.37). Weitzer was very happy with her efforts this fall.

"She worked very hard this fall and got a lot out of it," said Weitzer.

The 200 medley relay team of Semanek, Hannah Mast, Lucas and Emmorie Jossie took 20th (1:53.86). Weitzer was happy with Jossie's anchor leg.

This group finished its storied history with Greater Metro Conference titles in 2009, 2010 and 2011. The only underclassmen on the state group were the divers.

"They did a fine job," said Weitzer, "and now it's time for them to continue to learn and go onto their collegiate careers." Lucas has committed to UW-Green Bay while Siehs is reportedly attending Boise State.

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